On countdown to shutdown, spotlight remains on Cruz

Ted Cruz said Sunday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s position is “absolutist.”

As a federal government shutdown looms over the Republican effort to defund Obamacare, the spotlight remains sharply focused on GOP Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Some of the weekend’s highlight quotes from, to and about Cruz:

From Cruz on Meet the Press Sunday morning:

— “In my view, Harry Reid should call the Senate back in today … there’s no reason the Senate should be home on vacation.”

— “If Harry Reid forces a government shutdown, that would be a mistake. I hope he backs away from that ledge he’s pushing us towards.”

— Harry Reid has to back off his absolutist position.”

To Cruz, from Meet the Press host David Gregory: “You are making an argument. I asked you a specific question based on facts on the ground. … You went and spoke for 21 hours to make these arguments. You haven’t moved anyone.”

Cruz, in response: “Well, look — the American people overwhelmingly reject Obamacare.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.: “Senator Cruz has actually advanced our cause. He has alienated some of his colleagues, he has united Democrats and he has shown the American people that he is willing to hold them and their well-being hostage unless he gets his way.”

Cruz, on Rush Limbaugh: “The single biggest surprise on arriving at the Senate is the defeatist attitude here.”

Pundit Ezra Klein of the Washington Post: “The theme of Ted Cruz’s filibuster this week was “Make D.C. Listen.” But Cruz himself doesn’t listen; he talks. And talks. And talks. It’s no wonder the Texas senator can’t hear what the public is actually saying.”

Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, on Cruz: “Even if he ascends no higher … he will be a force in the Senate. He could spend decades making liberals recoil at what Princeton and Harvard hath wrought.”